Tag: advent2015

As I said in my post from last week about the third Bruichladdich Micro Provenance tasting –aka #LaddieMP3 – I have a complex relationship with Bruichladdich. There are a couple of drams that have shaken my dislike of the whiskes which have been made since the distillery was revived in 2000, but the one that weakened my resolve the most was Bruichladdich X4+3.

As I said in that blog post, it was a whisky that I should have in no way liked – quadruple-distilled and only matured for three years. Yet, I loved it. At the second of the online Laddie Micro Provenance tastings, they dropped in an older version, but I wasn’t involved and just watched as people enjoyed it, only to entirely forget about is existence moments later.

However, the lovely Ben Cops of Ben’s Whisky Blog, who had tried the X4+3 at Whisky Squad with me, remembered the my look of consternation as I realised how much I liked it, saved me a bit of the X4+9 and pressed it into my hand the next time I saw him. I finally got around to trying it this evening, so it is now advent calendar whisky #5 – Bruichladdich Micro Provenance Cask #060, aka X4+9.

Last weekend was the return of an event that hasn’t been seen for five years. A legendary whisky-fuelled party that I’m still kicking myself for not going to back in 2010 – Whisky Picnic.

After half a decade away, founders Duncan McRae and Nick Ravenhall have brought it back, and threw a Movember closing party on the evening of November 29. A Sunday. I mean, seriously: who drinks on a Sunday? It seems part of the answer is ‘me’.

Anyway, I brought home a souvenir, and it’s advent calendar ‘whisky’ #4: The Spirit of Whisky Picnic.

Going into this whole ‘write about 24 whiskies on 24 days’ thing without any kind of plan has turned out to be a good idea – it’s let me grab whiskies based on what’s happened during the day, good or bad.

The dram for day #3 is Glen Mhor 8yo by Gordon and MacPhail, bottled in the 1990s (probably) and drunk in honour of David Urquhart, who passed away a couple of days ago.

Last night was the Whisky Exchange Whisky of the Year tasting. While my thoughts on the whiskies up for judging will appear on The Whisky Exchange Blog shortly, they were not the only drams we tried. While TWE’s resident voting system geek (me) was off counting the votes cast (using a Contingent Vote, although altered to take the top three candidates due to a tie) to see who won, the attendees were treated to a mystery dram.

The whisky split the room. Most people thought it was good, a few really hated it, and one guy liked it more than any of the others we’d tried. What was the whisky? My second advent calendar dram: Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye – Jim Murray’s World Whisky of the Year 2016.

Tis the season of advent calendars, and the latest craze is to fill them with booze. Now, I’ve not actually got one – I do work for a drinks company in direct competition with the folks who make the calendars, after all – but everyone else with a whisky blog does and I feel left out. So, I’m going to write about a different whisky every day in advent, and as I don’t have an actual calendar, my whiskies should be different to everyone else’s. Here’s the first: Amrut Single Pedro Ximénez Cask #2697.

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Significantly thicker and richer than expected from the ABV. Louds of sour fruity hop: grapefruit, tangerines and unripe mango. Greenness and a hint of onion into the finish. Hop juice, in the best way.

Initially it’s massively fruity, despite the lower abv, but as your palate gets used to that, it turns into a dry hop bomb. Like juiced hops poured over tangerine skins. If you could juice a hop. Can you juice a hop? It doesn’t really matter...

Surprisingly big considering the ABV and very good with it. Tangerine and peach through the nose and palate, with a touch of watered-down pineapple juice. There's a touch of graininess in the mid-palate to remind you that it's not a ABV beast. Top work.

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